Great to hear someone else is trying out out VESC! I had a bit of a wobble with it at the weekend when I thought I’d bricked it. I think it happened when I configured SENS1 (which is also PA0/wkup pin) and it would then no longer program using stlink. There is no reset button but NRST is available on swd port so I need to hold it low then connect using stmprogrammer and then remove NRST from gnd after about 1.5 seconds. Not obvious. I got clues to a solution here.
Anyway - the drv8302 like many drivers has hardware dead time insertion. The DTC pin has a 10K resistor to ground. From the datasheet it says that dead time is controlled by resistors on this pin, the docs say 0 to 150 kΩ (50 ns to 500 ns) so I’d guess we have 100ns of deadtime??
I’ve not set the deadtime in software - until you raised your concerns I would have said it could be disabled. I’ve not changed the PWM frequency.
How many watts are you putting through it? What motor have you got it connected to? I’ve taken my hoverboard motor up 50 rad/s (unloaded) and it was drawing 30W (at 24V) with no noticeable heat at all.
Are you in closed loop? Things can get hot in openloop.